José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange (14 July 1896 – 20 November 1936) was a Spanish insurrectionary,
anarcho-syndicalist
Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence in b ...
militant involved with the
CNT and
FAI in the periods before and during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
. Durruti played an influential role during the
Spanish Revolution and is remembered as a hero in the anarchist movement.
Biography
Early life
José Buenaventura was born in
León, Spain
León (; ) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the province of León, part of the autonomous community of Castile and León, in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. It has a population of 124,303 (2019), ...
, son of Anastasia Dumange and Santiago Durruti, as the second of eight children. He started primary school when he was five and moved to the Calle Misericordia school four years later.
In 1910, aged 14, Durruti left school to become a trainee mechanic in the railway yard in
León. He started his first job at Matallana de Torio when he was 18. Like his father, he joined the
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
Unión General de Trabajadores
The Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT, General Union of Workers) is a major Spanish trade union, historically affiliated with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE).
History
The UGT was founded 12 August 1888 by Pablo Iglesias Posse ...
(UGT). He took an active part in the strike of August 1917 called by the UGT when the government overturned an agreement between the union and the employers. The government brought in the
Spanish Army
The Spanish Army ( es, Ejército de Tierra, lit=Land Army) is the terrestrial army of the Spanish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is one of the oldest active armies — dating back to the late 15th century.
The ...
to suppress the strike; they killed 70 people and injured more than 500 workers. 2,000 of the strikers were imprisoned without trial or legal process. Durruti managed to escape, but had to flee abroad to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
where he came into contact with exiled anarchists. The brutality of the Spanish State against anarchism had a profound and lasting effect on the young Durruti. From the autumn of 1917 until the beginning of 1920, Durruti worked in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
as a mechanic. He then decided to return to Spain and arrived at
San Sebastian,
Basque Country, just across the border. Here, he was introduced to local anarchists such as Suberviola, Ruiz, Aldabatrecu or Marcelino del Campo, with whom he formed the anarchist paramilitary group
Los Justicieros Los Justicieros, ''"The Avengers"'', was an anarchist paramilitary group created in 1920 in San Sebastián, Basque Region, during the years of pistolerismo. The group was created by Buenaventura Durruti, Suberviola, Ruiz, Aldabatrecu and Marcelin ...
("The Avengers"). In 1921, during the inauguration of the
Great Kursaal in San Sebastian, members of this group attempted unsuccessfully to
assassinate
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
Alfonso XIII
Alfonso XIII (17 May 1886 – 28 February 1941), also known as El Africano or the African, was King of Spain from 17 May 1886 to 14 April 1931, when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. He was a monarch from birth as his father, Alfo ...
. Shortly after Buenasca, the then president of the recently formed anarchist controlled
Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), persuaded Durruti to go to
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
to organise the workers there where the anarchist movement, as well as the syndicalists, was being brutally suppressed and most of its members jailed or executed. Here, with
Juan García Oliver
Joan Garcia i Oliver (1901–1980) was a Catalan anarcho-syndicalist revolutionary and Minister of Justice of the Second Spanish Republic. He was a leading figure of anarchism in Spain.
Career Childhood and family
Joan Garcia i Oliver was ...
,
Francisco Ascaso
Francisco Ascaso Abadía (Almudévar April 1, 1901 – Barcelona July 20, 1936) was the cousin of Joaquín Ascaso, the President of the Regional Defence Council of Aragon,Jesús Mestre i Campi, ''Diccionari d'Història de Catalunya'', Edicions ...
, Miguel Garcia Vivancos, Alfonso Miguel, Ricardo Sanz, and Aurelio Hernandez, he founded
Los Solidarios
Los Solidarios (“Solidarity”), also known as Crisol (“Crucible”), was a Spanish anarchist armed-struggle group founded in 1922 in Barcelona, as a reply to the dirty war strategy used by the employers and government against trade unions. ...
("The Solidarity"), one of the most famous of the so-called ''grupos de afinidad''. In 1923 the group was also implicated in the
assassination
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...
of
Cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
Juan Soldevilla y Romero
Juan Soldevilla y Romero (29 October 1843 – 4 June 1923) was a Spanish Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Zaragoza from 1901 until his death, and was elevated to the rank of cardinal in 1919.
Biography
Juan Solde ...
, as a reprisal for the killing of an
anarcho-syndicalist
Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence in b ...
union activist
Salvador Seguí
Salvador Seguí Rubinat (23 September 1887, in Lleida – 10 March 1923, in Barcelona), known as ''El noi del sucre'' ("the sugar boy" in Catalan) for his habit of eating the sugar cubes served him with his coffee, was a Catalan anarcho-syndical ...
. After
Miguel Primo de Rivera
Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquess of Estella (8 January 1870 – 16 March 1930), was a dictator, aristocrat, and military officer who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 1923 to 1930 during Spain's Restoration era. He deepl ...
seized power in
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
in 1923, Durruti and his comrades organised attacks on the military barracks in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
and on the border stations near France. These attacks were unsuccessful and quite a few anarchists were killed. Following these defeats, Durruti, Ascaso and Oliver fled to Latin America. They subsequently travelled widely, visiting Cuba and carrying out bank robberies in
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
and
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
.
Durruti and his companions returned to Spain and Barcelona, becoming an influential militant group within two of the largest anarchist organizations in Spain at the time, the
Federación Anarquista Ibérica
The Iberian Anarchist Federation ( es, Federación Anarquista Ibérica, FAI) is a Spanish organization of anarchist militants active within affinity groups in the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) anarcho-syndicalist union. It is often ...
(FAI), and of the anarcho-syndicalist
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo ( en, National Confederation of Labor; CNT) is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions, which was long affiliated with the International Workers' Association (AIT). When working wi ...
(CNT). The influence Durruti's group gained inside the CNT caused a split, with a reformist faction under
Ángel Pestaña
Ángel Pestaña Nuñez (1886–1937) was a Spanish Anarcho-syndicalism, Anarcho-syndicalist and later the founder of the Syndicalist Party.
Life
In April 1919, after Catalonia was shaken by the ''Canadenca'' protests, Pestaña was arrested an ...
leaving in 1931 and subsequently forming the
Syndicalist Party
The Syndicalist Party (; ) was a left-wing political party in Spain, formed by Ángel Pestaña in 1932. Pestaña, a leading member of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) trade union, formed the party in response to the growing influence ...
.
In the Civil War
Working closely with his comrades in the FAI and CNT Durruti helped to co-ordinate armed resistance to the military rising of the
Nationalist faction, an effort which was to prove vital in preventing
General Goded's attempt to seize control of
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
. During the battle for the Atarazanas Barracks, Durruti's long-time comrade and closest friend Ascaso was shot dead. Less than a week later, on 24 July 1936 Durruti led over 3,000 armed anarchists (later to become known as the
Durruti Column
The Durruti Column (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Columna Durruti''), with about 6,000 people, was the largest anarchist column (or military unit) formed during the Spanish Civil War. During the first months of the war, it became the most recogniz ...
) from
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
to
Zaragoza
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...
. After a brief and bloody battle at
Caspe
Caspe is a municipality in the province of Zaragoza, part of the autonomous community of Aragon (Spain), seat of the comarca Bajo Aragón-Caspe. As of 2018 it had a population of 9,525 inhabitants (INE 2018) and its municipality, of 503.33&n ...
(in
Aragón
Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sout ...
), they also halted at
Bujaraloz
Bujaraloz is a municipality located in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 1,002 inhabitants.
See also
*Monegros
*List of municipalities in Zaragoza
This is a list o ...
and at 'Venta de santa Lucia',
Pina de Ebro
Pina de Ebro is a municipality located in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE
INE, Ine or ine may refer to:
Institutions
* Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research center
* Instituto Na ...
, on the advice of a regular army officer, postponing an assault on Zaragoza. The presence of
Simone Weil
Simone Adolphine Weil ( , ; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist. Over 2,500 scholarly works have been published about her, including close analyses and readings of her work, since 1995.
...
in this region, following the Anarchist columns in this time is known. One of Durruti's most famous quotes was "''We renounce everything except victory''" with the undertone that the socialist revolution had to be stopped in advance of the war efforts.
Death
In November, having been persuaded to leave Aragón by the anarchist leader
Federica Montseny
Frederica Montseny i Mañé (; 1905–1994) was a Catalan Anarchism, anarchist and intellectual who served as Ministry of Health (Spain), Minister of Health and Social Assistance in the Government of the Second Spanish Republic, Spanish Republi ...
on behalf of the government, Durruti led his
militia
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
to
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
to aid in the defence of the city. On 19 November, he was shot while leading a counterattack in the
Casa de Campo
The Casa de Campo (, for Spanish: ''Country House'') is the largest public park in Madrid. It is situated west of central Madrid, Spain. It gets its name 'Country House' because it was once a royal hunting estate, located just west of the Ro ...
area (see also
Battle of Madrid
The siege of Madrid was a two-and-a-half-year siege of the Republican-controlled Spanish capital city of Madrid by the Nationalist armies, under General Francisco Franco, during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). The city, besieged from Octo ...
).
Antony Beevor
Sir Antony James Beevor, (born 14 December 1946) is a British military historian. He has published several popular historical works on the Second World War and the Spanish Civil War.
Early life
Born in Kensington, Beevor was educated at two ...
in ''The Spanish Civil War'' (1982) maintains that Durruti was killed when a companion's
machine pistol
A machine pistol is an autoloading pistol capable of fully automatic fire. The term can also be used to describe a stockless handgun-style submachine gun. The term is a calque of ''Maschinenpistole'', the German word for submachine guns. Machine ...
went off by mistake. He assessed that, at the time, the anarchists lied and claimed he had been hit by an enemy sniper's bullet "for reasons of
morale
Morale, also known as esprit de corps (), is the capacity of a group's members to maintain belief in an institution or goal, particularly in the face of opposition or hardship. Morale is often referenced by authority figures as a generic value ...
and
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
".
The first rumor of his death was that he was shot by his comrades because he enforced discipline.
Durruti died on 20 November 1936, at the age of 40, in a makeshift operating theatre set up in what was formerly the Ritz Hotel. The bullet was lodged in the heart; the diagnosis recorded was "death caused by pleural haemorrhage". In his later book ''Durruti in the Spanish Revolution'', it was alleged that Durruti was killed by a 9mm bullet to the thorax. The autopsy reported:
"Durruti had a very developed chest. Given the topography of the thorax, I realized that the diagnosis that surgery was impossible had been mistaken. An operation could have produced positive results, although doubtlessly the patient would not have survived."
Following a large
funeral procession
A funeral procession is a procession, usually in motor vehicles or by foot, from a funeral home or place of worship to the cemetery or crematorium. In earlier times the deceased was typically carried by male family members on a bier or in a cof ...
, he was buried in Barcelona's
Montjuïc Cemetery
Montjuïc Cemetery, known in Catalan as Cementiri del Sud-oest or Cementiri de Montjuïc, is located on one of the rocky slopes of Montjuïc hill in Barcelona.
History
It was opened on 17 March 1883 by the city of Barcelona as its main cemetery, ...
.
A few hours after Durruti's death, in reprisal,
José Luzón Morales
José Luzón Morales was a Spanish anarchist militant who was part of the "Spartacus" battalion in the Spanish Civil War.
Biography
A member of the National Confederation of Labor ( es, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, CNT), after the outb ...
ordered the execution of 52 policemen who had been held captive in a monastery in Calle de Santa Engracia.
Personal life
On 14 July 1927, Durruti met French
anarcho-syndicalist
Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence in b ...
, writer and
shorthand typist
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...
Émilienne Morin
Émilienne Léontine Morin (28 October 1901 – 14 February 1991) was a French anarcho-syndicalist, shorthand typist and partner of Buenaventura Durruti. In 1936, she was part of the Durruti column, an anarchist military unit, during the Spanish ...
at the ''Librairie internationale anarchiste (''International Anarchist Library) in Paris. They became life partners until his death.
When Durutti was expelled from France in July 1927, Morin accompanied him into Belgium, and worked to feed them both when he was unemployed. The couple travelled to Spain in 1931 and on 4 December 1931, their daughter Colette Durruti was born in Barcelona. Morin brought Collette up virtually single-handedly, with the help of an anarchist friend, Teresa Margaleff due to Durutti's absences. In 1936 Morin ran the press office for the Durutti Column and wrote many articles for French anarchist publications on the situation in Spain. She returned to France after Durutti's death, remaining heavily involved in anarchist politics and writing, and worked to raise funds for Spanish refugees in France.
Legacy
At first, Durruti's death was not made public, for morale reasons. Durruti's body was transported across the country to
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
for his funeral. Over a half million people filled the streets to accompany the cortege during its route to the
Montjuïc Cemetery
Montjuïc Cemetery, known in Catalan as Cementiri del Sud-oest or Cementiri de Montjuïc, is located on one of the rocky slopes of Montjuïc hill in Barcelona.
History
It was opened on 17 March 1883 by the city of Barcelona as its main cemetery, ...
. It was the last large-scale public demonstration of anarchist strength of numbers during the Spanish Civil War.
Hugh Thomas remark, "the death of Durruti marked the end of the classic age of Spanish anarchism. An anarchist poet proclaimed that Durruti’s nobility while living would cause ‘a legion of Durrutis’ to spring up behind him".
In 1937, as a response to the further participation of the CNT-FAI in the Republican government, and after the
May Days
The May Days, sometimes also called May Events, refer to a series of clashes between 3 and 8 May 1937 during which factions on the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War engaged one another in street battles in various parts of Catalonia, ...
in 1937 in Barcelona, the
Friends of Durruti Group
The Friends of Durruti Group (in Spanish, ''Agrupación de los Amigos de Durruti'') was an anarchist group in Spain, named after Buenaventura Durruti. It was founded on 15 March 1937, by Jaime Balius, Félix Martínez and Pablo Ruiz.
The group ed ...
was founded, to try and save the anarchist principles of the revolution. The name of Durruti clearly taken because of the revolutionary commitment and the symbol that he still was for that in the anarchist camp. The ''Friends of Durruti group'' had a newspaper called ''El Amigo del Pueblo'' (The Friend of the People) and tried to make revolutionary propaganda among the rank and file of the CNT. The group was however fiercely repressed by the reformist wing of the CNT, in collaboration with the Republican government.
A
Situationist
The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...
group of
Strasbourg University
The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers.
The French university traces its history to the ea ...
students spent their student union's budget on a giant
flyposted
Flyposting (also known as wild posting or bill posting) is a guerrilla marketing tactic where advertising posters are put up. In the United States, these posters are also commonly referred to as wheatpaste posters because wheatpaste is often u ...
comic strip in 1966. One of its panels, featuring two cowboys discussing
philosophical reification, was called ''The Return of the Durutti Column'' , in reference to Durruti's military unit. This, in turn, influenced
Tony Wilson
Anthony Howard Wilson (20 February 1950 – 10 August 2007) was a British record label owner, radio and television presenter, nightclub manager, impresario and a journalist for Granada Television, the BBC and Channel 4.
As a co-founder of ...
's naming of his English post-punk band,
The Durutti Column
The Durutti Column are an English post-punk band formed in 1978 in Manchester, England.Strong, Martin C. (1999) "The Great Alternative & Indie Discography", Canongate, The band is a project of guitarist and occasional pianist Vini Reilly who ...
.
Willem van Spronsen, an American anarchist who was
killed in 2019 while trying to disable a fleet of buses operated by
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...
(ICE) for mass deportation, used Durruti's surname as a part of his
alias
Alias may refer to:
* Pseudonym
* Pen name
* Nickname
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Alias'' (2013 film), a 2013 Canadian documentary film
* ''Alias'' (TV series), an American action thriller series 2001–2006
* ''Alias the ...
.
Gallery
Buenaventura Durruti.jpg, Photograph of Durruti
File:Durruti 23 novembre 1936.jpg, Funeral of Durruti, Barcelona, 23 November 1936
File:Tumbadurruti.jpg, Durruti's grave full of flowers on the 69th anniversary of his death
File:Tumba Durruti.JPG, Durruti's grave at Montjuïc Cemetery
Montjuïc Cemetery, known in Catalan as Cementiri del Sud-oest or Cementiri de Montjuïc, is located on one of the rocky slopes of Montjuïc hill in Barcelona.
History
It was opened on 17 March 1883 by the city of Barcelona as its main cemetery, ...
, Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
File:Hálito Durruti.JPG, "Hálito Durruti", monument to Buenaventura Durruti in his hometown of León
See also
*
Anarchism in Spain
Anarchism in Spain has historically gained some support and influence, especially before Francisco Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, when it played an active political role and is considered the end of the golden age of c ...
*
Anarchist Catalonia
Revolutionary Catalonia (21 July 1936 – 10 February 1939) was the part of Catalonia (autonomous region in northeast Spain) controlled by various anarchist, communist, and socialist trade unions, parties, and militias of the Spanish Civil W ...
Notes
References
*
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Further reading
*
*
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*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Durruti, Buenaventura
1896 births
1936 deaths
Anarchist assassins
Anarcho-communists
Anarchist partisans
Anarcho-syndicalists
Burials at Montjuïc Cemetery
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo members
Deaths by firearm in Spain
Military personnel killed by friendly fire
Military personnel killed in the Spanish Civil War
People from León, Spain
Spanish anarchists
Spanish anti-fascists
Spanish atheists
Spanish casualties of the Spanish Civil War
Spanish military personnel killed in action
Spanish military personnel of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)
Spanish rebels
Spanish revolutionaries